The Deadly Circus

Donald Trump continues to sink into the ooze. Some, including me, are amazed by his performance -- or lack of it. Martin Dunn -- who used to edit The New York Daily News -- remains nonplused:

Running one of the biggest and most important newspapers in America and New York made it impossible to avoid Donald J Trump.

His sex life, his money, his businesses – whether they succeeded or failed – his narcissistic branding of city landmarks and his investment in football teams and ice skating rinks made him constant fodder for gossip columnists, investigative teams and sports writers.

Whether planting complimentary stories or raging about unfavorable coverage, Trump ensured New York could not ignore him. Newspapers, magazines and TV stations were there to be used to enhance the Trump name.

He had no shame in using the media and we had no qualms about capitalizing on his headline-generating power. For decades the competition centered on which tabloid could out-Trump the other. In a city where business leaders are hailed as celebrities, Trump became the undisputed master manipulator – the man who understood that the only thing worse than being written about was not being written about.

And, in Washington, he operates from the same playbook:

Having masterminded coverage of him for more than a decade, I’m not laughing any more. The very things that brought him headlines are now the behavior that is costing America in ways unimaginable a few months ago.

The president’s nightly, often rambling, performances in front of the White House and world’s press have developed a sad, deep, morbid fascination. It is unconscionable that even in the depth of one of the world’s most deadly crises, Trump displays the same unfiltered – and frequently uneducated – outbursts that typified his relationship with his hometown press in the 1980s and 1990s.

Instead of being the authoritative, inspiring voice that the nation so desperately needs in its darkest hour, Trump shows much of the same bullying, self-satisfied characteristics he learned in his dealings with the media in New York. In fact, Trump was more comfortable and coherent discussing gossip items as he is trying to inspire a frightened country.

It’s frightening enough that, with few exceptions, he surrounds himself with fawning acolytes who massage his ego with an obsequiousness that would bring shame in North Korea. It’s shocking to witness that the vocabulary of the supposedly most powerful man in the world extends only as far as “incredible,” “great” and “amazing”, mostly in reference to himself. And it’s disgraceful to witness him publicly berate journalists and governors who he feels don’t treat him with due deference, as opposed to the respect with which his predecessors were treated. Alone those things make his press briefings excruciatingly embarrassing.

What is more unforgivable is watching a president playing loose and fast with facts; a man who lives in an echo chamber of soundbites and quips – whether appropriate or not – shamefully adding to confusion and fear with every mixed message he utters.

In New York, Trump was the ringmaster of his own three-ring circus. In Washington, that circus has become deadly.

Image: mediamatters.org